The present invention relates generally to computer systems and more particularly to a system of automatic identification and streamlined access when connecting to an online service.
This application relates to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/012,196, filed on Jan. 23, 1998, entitled System And Method For Preparing A Computer Memory, naming Alan E. Beelitz as inventor. The co-pending application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and is assigned to the assignee of this invention.
This application relates to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/012,962 filed on Jan. 26, 1998, entitled Generation of a Compatible Order For a Computer System, naming Alan E. Beelitz and Paul J. Maia as inventors. The co-pending application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and is assigned to the assignee of this invention.
This application relates to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/009,401, filed on Jan. 19, 1998, entitled Method And Apparatus For Providing And Accessing Data At An Internet Site naming Amy Van Wyngarden as inventor. The co-pending application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and is assigned to the assignee of this invention.
This application relates to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/066,128, filed on Apr. 24, 1998, entitled Method And System For Supplying A Custom Software Image To A Computer System naming Tom Colligan, Jonathan Ellis and Hunter Robertson as inventors. The co-pending application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and is assigned to the assignee of this invention.
This application relates to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/182,403, filed on Oct. 29, 1998, entitled Built-In Automatic Customer Identifier When Connecting to a Vendor Website naming Jon Boede as inventor. The co-pending application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and is assigned to the assignee of this invention.
When an off-the-shelf computer system is purchased, the customer may eventually need to have the system serviced, or may wish to modify and/or enhance the system. In that event, the customer must be sure that system compatible service and/or enhancements are provided. This can be accomplished by identifying the customer's system by model number.
More recently, customers have been purchasing custom created systems as opposed to an off-the-shelf system. This can complicate service and modification of the system. Customers would have to know specifically what the make-up of their custom-built system is, as would the service technician or the vendor of the original system. This can be checked by providing the vendor or service technician with identifying information for the computer, such as a serial or other identification number or the name of the company that purchased the computer, so that the original purchase order or specifications can be referenced to know and understand all the custom features of a particular system.
For example, a customer may call the vendor and request a new or additional part or a replacement part for a custom built system. The vendor will need to reference the original system in order to advise the customer and provide compatible equipment. This is accomplished by the vendor requesting that the customer provide the serial number or other identification number so that the original system may be reviewed and compatible components can be provided. This requires that the customer know or be able to locate the serial number and that the vendor be able to locate sales records and specification data relating to the customer specific system.
After a customer purchases a computer system, he or she may also need to access the vendor by the worldwide web to inquire about service and or further modifications and enhancements available for the customer specific system. This scenario still requires some form of, or exercise in, identifying the original system to avoid substituting or adding parts or enhancements that are not compatible with the original system. An example of a web page 100 for providing such identifying information to the vendor via the worldwide web is shown FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, using the web page 100 a customer enters either a system service tag or express service code in a field 102 and then selects a button 104 labeled "Submit" to submit the information to the vendor. Moreover, the vendor may need the customer to fill in additional information about the customer or the computer that the vendor may already have, but, can not automatically identify with the customer without a unique identifier for the customer's computer system.
Therefore, what is needed is a means for automatically identifying a computer system when the customer connects to a vendor via the worldwide web.